Chapter 20
TWENTY
AMELIA
Chickens squawk, zipping through an elaborate fenced-in maze among the bright grass of Wyatt and Rory’s immense backyard, as I make my way to the picnic table.
“Henrietta, don’t get your hopes up,” Rory chides, shaking a finger at one of the birds. “Wyatt isn’t touching you again tonight, you’re in there till the morning, missy.”
A ruffle of feathers, the flapping of some wings, and the birds all disappear in what almost sounded like a huff back into their playground of sorts.
“She’s such a spoiled thing,” Rory tsks. “Obsessed with my husband.”
“That so?” Wyatt asks, slinking up behind her, his stubble grazing her cheek as his arms cage around her middle. “That makes three of the ladies in this house then.”
Rory rolls her eyes, pats his cheek, and takes off again, leaving him standing there as she leads the way to the wooden table and benches.
It’s hard not to gawk at their yard. It’s so big it must be measured in acres. Actually, I think this might qualify as a park. The grassy lawn is obnoxiously green, a patch of wildflowers at the far end lending a sweet aroma to the warm evening air, all hemmed in by the thick woods of their own private forest. I’ve never seen anything like it back in Minnesota, that’s for sure. It’s straight out of a storybook.
Makes me wish I could show my mom. Her tulips did come in gorgeous this year, just last week she sent the pictures, but she would lose her mind over the greenery and wildflowers here.
Not to mention the house itself, which is completely dreamy. Even more so when Rory told me the story all about it.
These Grady men are something else.
My very own Grady man (the best one, and it’s not even close) comes running up behind me, catching up to me and taking my hand, escorting me to the table. The bucket of ice and beers in his hand thunks down onto the wooden planks of the table and he straddles the bench, patting his lap with a cheek-splitting grin in my direction.
“Are you serious?” I whisper through my teeth. “Your whole family is here.”
“Not my whole family,” he says. “My mom, stepdad, dad, and stepmom aren’t here. Yet.”
My eyes fly open, wider than before, and he laughs. “Just playin’ darlin’. They won’t be here tonight. Just sit down.”
I let him goad me into it, plopping down across his thighs, the sundress Rory brought me back from her trip to New York dusting my upper thighs as I sit. I gasped when I saw the box with my name on it at Weston’s the night the brothers made up. It’s almost white in color, with small pink flowers, thin straps across the shoulders, and some detail around the bust that is incredibly flattering. If this is the kind of stuff she finds there, I can understand why she goes so often. I love my cozy cropped tees, but this makes me feel a kind of beautiful that’s unfamiliar to me. Several levels above being comfortable in my own skin, this outfit demands that I’m celebrated.
Wyatt, Rory, and her stepfather are in and out of the house, setting the table, while Weston and I sit outside, and guilt claws at my insides.
“Should we be helping?”
“Nah,” he says, ease radiating from his relaxed pose. “You’re a first-timer tonight. That gets you guest status.”
The twitch of his lips makes my insides churn for different reasons.
“And you?” I ask.
“I’m showing you the ropes,” he says, sliding a hand up my bare thigh, fingertips brushing the inside of my leg and causing an instant reaction just a bit north. Squirming on his lap, his eyes heat in warning.
“Careful, darlin’. You’re about to start something you might not want me to finish here at the table.”
“Well don’t turn me on then,” I mutter back to him, as footsteps traipse across the lawn, grass rustling. A dragonfly darts across the yard to stay safe, but I’m stuck right here, seated on a lap I’ve ridden so many times in the last few weeks, muscle memory alone is threatening to take over for me.
“You’re one to talk,” he says, eyes trained on my breasts, practically poking him in the eye from this angle. “So fucking hot in this thing I can barely sit here with my hands to myself. Gonna spend this entire meal planning out every single thing I’m gonna do to you when we get ho?—”
Weston doesn’t get to finish his sentence because I clap a hand over his mouth when Lexi and Rory are within hearing distance.
He mumbles against my hand, and the girls laugh as they approach.
“We have that problem too,” Rory says with a knowing look.
Alexis tries to cover up the longing with a roll of her eyes—her go to—but I catch it and feel a twinge of empathy for making her feel lonely with my happiness. It’s the way I’ve felt everywhere I’ve gone up until now, and I know the unfairness of it well.
You never want to make other people feel bad for finding their joy, but after long enough, every sultry look between lovers becomes a stab in the heart.
If only she knew that my joy is only temporary. That if my secret comes out I’d be run out of town, and forgive me, I’m just trying to enjoy this while I can.
Weston winks at me when I finally pull my hand back before leaning in to press a soft kiss to the side of my throat, on the delicate spot where it joins my shoulder. I try to hide the chills it gives me, but I don’t think I get away with it.
Rory just smirks, but Lexi scoffs. “Ugh, this isn’t fair. Now everyone around me is loved up and getting laid.”
The bench creaks as she plunks down on it. The far end, away from us.
I shoot her puppy dog eyes and hold my hands out to her.
She tosses her head, wild curls tumbling around her with the movement. “I can’t be near you two, you’re sickening right now.”
Weston cackles, hemming me in with an arm around my middle, and grabs a couple beers with his other hand. I try not to focus on the patterns his fingers are tracing on my skin through the delicate fabric of the dress, doing my best to keep my attention on Lexi and our host across from me, trying to stay engaged in their conversation rather than wrapped up in West.
“You’re full of it,” Rory laughs, waving a hand at Lexi. “You were their biggest cheerleader before they got together.”
“You were their second,” she retorts, like it’s an insult, making a face that one would only pull at a sibling.
“Obviously,” Rory says with a catlike smile. “I wanted to poach them both for the Heights. I couldn’t be happier at how this is working out.”
She winks at me, and I’m reminded again that she’s my hero.
I push away the pessimist in me that wonders how long this facade can last. If, when my grant application comes back approved, I’ll decide that’s enough playing house, it’s time to hit the road again.
Luckily, Rory keeps talking, distracting me from the shadows that live within me. “Besides, Lexi, I hear there’s fresh meat in town.”
Lexi’s faces visibly darkens, like clouds rolling in, or maybe lightning struck and that’s her hair starting to stand on end.
I’m distracted by the drag of the pads of Weston’s fingers across my bare skin, then over the dress again, but I try to focus.
“You hear that, do you?” Lexi’s teeth are clenched, eyes violent as she has a wordless conversation with her sister that none of the rest of us are privy to. “Could that be because you got him here? And stuck him on me? And now I have to work with the most infuriating man-child on the planet, because you gave me no other choice?”
The man beneath me pops the tops on the beers, the bright scent of hops making my mouth water as he places one within reach for me and taking a swig of his own.
Rory sips her white wine, not opting for beer tonight. I wonder if it’s because of the new place that just opened downtown, Smoky Sips. We’re supposed to do a girls’ night there soon, maybe she’s prepping her palate.
Me, at a girls’ night. With friends.
Pinch me.
She gives Lexi an innocent expression and bats her lashes a couple of times to really sell it. “Whatever do you mean, dear sister? I got you a talented chef, straight from New York. The cafe is going to be so much better off with him behind the line.”
“You got me a sandwich maker from a bodega!”
“Wait.” Weston perks up beneath me but his fingers don’t stop teasing me through my dress, my breaths coming shallow. “ The sandwich maker? From the bodega?”
Clearly I’m missing something because Rory’s face turns bright red and Lexi screams a laugh, pointing at her sister in accusation.
“Wilder is that man! How did I not put this together sooner?”
I turn to Weston in confusion, and he gives me a subtle shake of his head. “I’ll explain later,” he whispers in my ear, and the graze of his lips against my skin brings a flutter to my insides and a chill to my flesh, despite the comfortable—okay, hot—temperature.
The girls continue bickering, Rory pleading with Lexi in hushed tones as Wyatt brings out their daughter, just woken up from a late nap and clinging to her father in a way that makes my eyes sting.
It’s a mild form of chaos as the men carry the dishes of piping hot food from the house, setting out the family style meal on the table.
I quickly learn that family dinner at the Grady cabin isn’t a formal affair. The food was brought back in a cooler with dry ice from New York, and it’s delicious too. The conversation is noisy, hilarious, and overly personal. Very little seems to be off the table in terms of subjects up for discussion, and the jibes flying between both sets of siblings makes my head spin trying to volley between them all, like my own personal tennis match. The only person who’s more quiet than me at this table tonight is Wyatt, but when he speaks, it counts.
My house was fun once upon a time, but it was never like this. Love pouring from everyone present, even with the ribbing and some jokes at the other’s expense. My brother and I certainly were never close like these four are.
Even the older man keeps up with them, digging into each of them as called for, with lots of oohs and aahs coming from the witnesses every time he gets one in.
Weston keeps me in his lap while we both eat, and he manages not to get anything on my beautiful new dress. He sneaks in kisses to my shoulders and the nape of my neck every so often, dragging his lips over my skin for a moment longer than necessary each time. I wiggle my butt in his lap just enough so that he gets the point, something hard nudging my ass from beneath me.
“Careful,” he whispers in my ear. “You wake the beast, you’re the one who’s gonna have to tame it.”
I turn around and give him a quick kiss, nipping at his lip, and his mouth splits into a wide grin, dimples popping out on either side.
It’s easier than I ever thought it would be to have a partner, being with him. His family are so supportive (well, once he screwed Wyatt’s head on straight at least), and so welcoming. This is nowhere near as scary as I pictured a milestone like “meeting the family” being.
As long as they don’t grill me like the partner’s families do in all the rom-coms, we should be fine. All they need to do is not ask where I’m from, what my family does, or anything else that could paint the picture of my past. Easy, right?
Weston’s warm breath against my ear distracts me, bringing me back into the moment. “You do realize every time I lean forward to take a bite, I’m just looking down your dress, picturing your tight little nipples begging for my mouth, right?”
The words are so low, so quiet, no chance anyone else hears them, but the bastard has me so turned on I could probably come from readjusting on his leg right now. And he doesn’t stop there.
“Nobody here knows your kinky little secrets, do they? You look so innocent in that dress, angel. If only they could see what’s beneath it.”
Weston slides one calloused hand to the far side of my leg and up my body, away from the eyes of everyone else at the table, only the garden nymphs and maybe Henrietta the Eighth can see what he’s doing to me.
Dragging his hand up my ribcage, he lets it wander, teasing the side of my breast as he keeps whispering. “What you look like riding my cock as I pull on that nipple ring and watch your pussy clench.”
That’s my limit, apparently. I let out something like a chirp and sit up quickly, pulling away from his wandering fingers, his lips, before I fall so deep into his touch I forget where we are and give in to grinding on his leg like I’m in heat. That would be an embarrassment I couldn’t come back from.
So I pay attention, I try harder to follow the conversation around us, I laugh at the jokes, I genuinely have a great time with these people. But through it all, my focus keeps shifting to the hardness beneath me, the wetness soaking the new underwear I’m wearing for him tonight. All the ways I want to get payback on him when we’re alone.
It’s not long before Weston leans forward once again, grabbing a fresh beer from the ice bucket, but now I know it’s just an excuse to look down my dress again. Bubbles still fizzle and pop near the surface of his last bottle, for crying out loud, he doesn’t need a new one.
His cock rubbing against me, his hips moving with the forward motion to make sure I feel it just confirms my theory, and I struggle to sit still through it all, counting down to when I can exact my revenge.
When he’s leaned back once more, his lips find my ear again. “Staring at your tits all night has got me so goddamn hard I’m gonna blow the second you touch me. Maybe the second I touch you. I didn’t pay enough for this dress.”
A soft gasp comes out before I can stop it. “You bought this?” I ask him.
“Did I forget to mention that?” His lips tilt up, and my eyes follow the motion. “Well, I gave Rory some money to bring me back something I’d enjoy,” he says, shoulder popping. “She nailed it. I’m going to enjoy the shit out of ripping this thing off of you.”
“Lovebirds!” Lexi’s harsh bark interrupts us. “You guys can at least keep it to sexting with your phones beneath the table so the rest of us can pretend we don’t notice when you detail everything you’re going to do to one another later.”
She gives Wyatt and Rory both meaningful stares, and Rory’s face heats while Wyatt narrows his eyes at her in a scowl. Rory’s stepfather looks away, watching the garden and pretending he can’t hear this conversation.
My face falls, tucking into Weston’s shoulder as everyone else at the table laughs.
“We’ve all been there,” the graying man across from Lexi says knowingly.
“Ew!” Rory and Lexi both shout at once, faces in varying degrees of shock and outrage as they stare at him.
“What? You think your mom and I didn’t fuck like rabb?—”
“That’s enough!” Rory’s boss bitch voice comes out, and the table falls silent for just a moment before laughter breaks out across it, including from me.
“This is so unfair,” Lexi whines. “Couldn’t you get me someone too?” she pleads with her sister.
Rory waggles her brows at her suggestively, and Lexi scoffs almost like a child at whatever the inference is.
“No way.” She holds her hand up like a 90s girl but then goes back to wheedling. “If you’re not going to get me a fuck buddy?—”
Rory covers her ears, as does their stepfather, and Rory singsongs loudly over Lexi until she feels it’s safe again. Once she drops her hands, Lexi jumps right back in.
“—you could at least approve my request for more flowers!”
“No commission requests at the dining table,” Rory says firmly, scooping more salad onto her plate.
“It would look so pretty with more flowers,” Lexi wheedles. “Look how pretty your yard is, with the daffodils and the hyacinth.”
“We’re not spending any more money on flowers downtown. We have two entire city blocks full of trees and flowers. Plant your own in front of the cafe if you want more.”
Lexi growls at her. “I already did, but it needs more! Nora’s been asking for them, too, you’re gonna make me do hers myself? You’re such a flower grinch!”
My stomach doesn’t nosedive nearly as much as usual at the mention of anything Christmas-related, I’m so invested in their argument. The best entertainment I’ve had since finishing catching up on past episodes of Vengeful Vixens .
The younger of the two sisters isn’t buckling under the pressure. “Do you want to review the budgets? Be responsible for the purse strings? Why don’t you look at exactly how much we’ve spent so far on landscaping? I’m not giving it another dime!”
Lexi continues arguing. “It’s about to be summer! Most of the flowers along Main will be done for the year, and then in fall those maple trees are going dominate downtown, and?—”
Rory cuts her off, “We have plants for all seasons, it looks beautiful, NEXT!”
Even Wyatt can’t keep from chuckling, leaning over to kiss his wife on the temple, their daughter in his arms, as the whole table laughs at the antics that never seem to cease in this family.
And I know I can’t stay forever, the past will catch up with me eventually, but damn this is a good place to rest and recharge the part of my soul I’ve been missing before I have to run again.